The Broadway Album
The Broadway Album is the twenty-fourth studio album by director, composer, actress and singer Barbra Streisand, released by Columbia Records on November 5, 1985. Consisting mainly of classic show tunes, the album marked a major shift in Streisand's career. She had spent ten years appearing in musicals and singing standards on her albums in the 1960s. Beginning with the album Stoney End in 1971 and ending with the album Emotion in 1984, Streisand sang mostly rock, pop, folk, and disco-oriented songs for Columbia records. Noted Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim personally penned additional lyrics for the songs "Putting It Together" and "Send in the Clowns" on request of the singer. The album, originally released on the Columbia label and subsequently re-released by Columbia and Sony Records, was a critical and commercial success. First certified gold by the RIAA on January 13, 1986, it reached four times platinum on January 31, 1995.RIAA search engine. Accessed October 18, 2007. This album has gone on to sell 7.5 million copies worldwide. The album was accompanied by a television special, Putting It Together: The Making of the Broadway Album. The original LP and cassette releases contained 11 tracks. The subsequent CD release added the bonus track "Adelaide's Lament".Howe, Matt. Compact Discs: New Technology http://barbra-archives.com/record/albums/broadway_album.html. Barbra Streisand Archives. In 2002, Columbia re-released The Broadway Album with another bonus track, "I Know Him So Well". Production Streisand started her career on Broadway, and so considered this album in sense returning to her roots, after two decades of recording popular music of the day. She considers the tracks music she has great respect for, deeming it some of the best music and lyrics ever written. The lead single, "Putting It Together" from Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George, was rewritten to be about the dichotomy between art and commerce in the music industry. Streisand hired her previous The Way We Were director Sydney Pollack, as well as David Geffen, head of Geffen Records to play the parts of the antagonistic studio heads. Streisand wanted to record the entire piece live to capture the atmosphere of Broadway shows. Many of the musicians also played in Funny Girl 22 years earlier, and a month of rehearsals with Stephen Sondheim was undertaken before recording.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Seg9G_eFazE Reception and accolades class=album|id=r24206|pure_url=yes}} link |rev2=''Entertainment Weekly'' |rev2Score=(A) link |rev3=Robert Christgau |rev3Score=© link}} In 1993, Entertainment Weekly looked back nostalgically on the album as "the work of a supreme singer-actress still unspoiled enough to fall in love with the characters she sings".Sandow, Greg. (June 25, 1993). Back to Broadway. EW.com. Accessed October 18, 2007. Writing at the time of the release, Rolling Stone took a slightly more cynical view, although after criticizing the album for its self-consciousness and overproduction, reviewer Francis Davis did concede that the album "works somehow, if only as a reminder of what a neglected wealth of riches Broadway offers and what a marvelous singer Streisand is when she's not trying to pass herself off as a rock star".Davis, Francis. (January 16, 1986) The Broadway Album. Rolling Stone. Accessed October 18, 2007. New York Times reviewer Stephen Holden, once himself with Rolling Stone, had no such reservations, declaring shortly after the album's release that Streisand had "just released what may be the album of a lifetime". The album was ranked #37 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the '100 100 GREATEST CDS ', the fourth highest album by a female artist to appear on the list. The album reached #1 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart in 1986, selling 218,000 copies in that week and earned Streisand a Grammy Award for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance". It launched two successful singles. "Send in the Clowns", from A Little Night Music, reached #25 on the "Adult Contemporary" chart. "Somewhere", a song from West Side Story, reached #5 on "Adult Contemporary" and also earned a Grammy for producer David Foster for "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)/Best Background Arrangement". According to the liner notes of Streisand's retrospective box set, Just for the Record, the album also received a record certification in Australia.Liner notes, C4K 44111. Columbia Records, 1991 Track listing #"Putting It Together" (Stephen Sondheim) – 4:20 #*from Sunday in the Park with George #"If I Loved You" (Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers) – 2:38 #*from Carousel #"Something's Coming" (Leonard Bernstein, Sondheim) – 2:55 #*from West Side Story #"Not While I'm Around" (Sondheim) – 3:29 #*from Sweeney Todd #"Being Alive" (Sondheim) – 3:23 #*from Company #"I Have Dreamed"/"We Kiss in a Shadow"/"Something Wonderful" (Hammerstein, Rodgers) – 4:50 #*from The King and I #"Adelaide's Lament" (Frank Loesser) – 3:25 (CD Bonus Track) #*from Guys and Dolls #"Send In the Clowns" (Sondheim) – 4:42 #*from A Little Night Music #"Pretty Women"/"The Ladies Who Lunch" (Sondheim) – 5:09 #*from Sweeney Todd/''Company'' #"Can't Help Lovin' That Man" (Hammerstein, Jerome Kern) – 3:31 #*from Show Boat #"I Loves You, Porgy"/"Porgy, I's Your Woman Now (Bess, You Is My Woman)" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward) – 4:35 #*from Porgy and Bess #"Somewhere" (Bernstein, Sondheim) – 4:56 #*from West Side Story Bonus track 13. "I Know Him So Well" outtake (Tim Rice, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus) – 4:14 *from Chess Personnel Information is based on Liner Notes.Streisand, Barbra. “The Broadway Album”. Columbia. 1985. *Chuck Berghofer – bass ("Adelaide's Lament") *Oscar Castro-Neves – guitar ("Pretty Women/The Ladies Who Lunch") *Paulinho da Costa – percussion (tracks 5, 9) *Earl Dumler – English horn, oboe ("Send in the Clowns") *Bob Esty – keyboards ("The King and I" medley) *David Foster – synthesizer, keyboards ("Somewhere") *David Geffen – voice actor ("Putting it Together") *Sol Gubin – drums (tracks 7, 9) *Gary Herbig – alto saxophone solo ("Being Alive") *Randy Kerber – piano ("Send in the Clowns") *Jeremy Lubbock – strings (track 6), conductor (4, 8) *Brian O'Connor – French horn ("If I Loved You") *Peter Matz – conductor (tracks 1–2, 5, 7, 9–11) *Richard Page – backing vocalist ("I Know Him So Well") *Sydney Pollack – voice actor ("Putting it Together") *Steve Schaeffer – drums ("Being Alive") *Barbra Streisand – vocals (all tracks) *Neil Stubenhaus – bass guitar ("Being Alive") *Ken Sylk - voice actor (“Putting it Together”) *Richard Todd – French horn ("Send in the Clowns") *Randy Waldman – synthesizer (tracks 1, 3, 8, 12), keyboards (12) *Stevie Wonder – harmonica ("Can't Help Lovin' That Man") Production *John Arrias – recording engineer (tracks 3, 6, 8), remixing (3, 6, 8, 10) *Israel Baker – concertmaster ("Send in the Clowns") *Richard Baskin – arranger (track 3), producer (tracks 3–4) *Michael Boddicker – synthesizer programming ("Somewhere") *Alexander Courage – orchestration ("Porgy and Bess" medley) *Bob Esty – arranger, producer ("The King and I" medley) *Benny Faccone – engineer, assistant engineer (all tracks) *David Foster – arranger, producer ("Somewhere") *Humberto Gatica – recording engineer (track 12), remixing (1–2, 5, 9, 11) *Don Hahn – recording engineer (tracks 1–2, 4–5, 7, 9–11), remixing (track 4) *Jerry Hey – horn arrangements ("Something's Coming") *Paul Jabara – arranger, producer ("The King and I" medley) *Gregg Jampol – assistant engineer *Rhett Lawrence – keyboard programming ("The King and I" medley) *Laura Livingston – remix assistant (all tracks) *Jeremy Lubbock – orchestration ("Send in the Clowns") *Stephen Marcussen – remastering, original mastering *Peter Matz – arranger (tracks 1–2, 5, 9, 11), conductor (1–2, 7, 9–11), producer (1–2, 5, 7, 9–11), executive producer, orchestration (9–10) *Magic Moreno – additional recording engineer (track 12), assistant recording engineer (all tracks) *Sid Ramin – orchestration ("Adelaide's Lament") *Conrad Salinger – original orchestration ("Can't Help Lovin' That Man") *Kim Skalecki – production coordination (all tracks) *Barbra Streisand – arranger (tracks 1, 5, 9, 11), producer (1–2, 5–11), executive producer, mastering supervisor *Gerald Vinci – concert master ("Can't Help Lovin' That Man") *Randy Waldman – arranger ("Something's Coming") *Stewart Whitmore – digital editing *Jay Willis – remix assistant (all tracks) *Jeffrey "Woody" Woodruff – assistant recording engineer ("Somewhere") Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts Certifications and sales }} References *Audio reference for unreleased song "I Know Him So Well" External links *Barbra Archives - "Broadway Album" page with info on the Columbia CD remasters, album cover outtakes, and packaging. *Barbra Archives - "The Broadway Album: Art Isn't Easy"; an in-depth look at pre-production and recording sessions of "The Broadway Album", including quotes from Peter Matz and Miss Streisand. Category:Barbra Streisand albums Category:1985 albums Category:Albums arranged by Peter Matz Category:Albums produced by David Foster Category:Columbia Records albums Category:Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance